Slain Police Officer Was Paying Off Cancer Treatment

Police Officer Doug Barney was shot and killed while on duty in Holladay, Utah, on Jan. 17, after trying to assist at the site of an accident, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

The 18-year veteran of law enforcement left behind his wife and three children, but he was working overtime to pay off his medical bills, having recently survived bladder cancer.

"His family has dealt with the possibility that they could lose their dad for 12 years, and he was in remission again and doing well," Salt Lake Unified Police Department Lt. Lex Bell told The Associated Press. "He was back to his old self, his color was good, and he was laughing and slapping you on the back again. And then they lose him to a bullet.”

Bell was Barney’s partner in the 2000s.

Barney was shot as he approached a man and a woman who had been in a car crash. The man allegedly fired, killing Barney.

The man who reportedly fired the fatal bullet, 31-year-old Cory Lee Henderson, was later killed in a shootout with police. His rap sheet included multiple firearms and drug-related charges, but he was given parole in April 2015 after being convicted of possession of a firearm by a restricted person.

Most recently, Henderson violated parole was sent back to a state-run drug treatment center while weapon charges were pending. He disappeared from the treatment center and a warrant had been out for his arrest since Dec. 21.

"Everything followed according to the guidelines, but it certainly is tragic that he decided to do this," Greg Johnson, spokesman for the Utah Board of Pardons, told The Salt Lake Tribune.